Shopsmith Forums

Was reading Ed's thread on pin chucks and his last post spoke of closing up shop until warmer weather. So I just had to share an experience.

Two days ago someone posted on craigslist giving away free wood "good for crafts." OK, so I bite and respond. This guy was moving and needed his little trailer cleaned out of wood he had salvaged. I jump in my truck and go unload his trailer. I don't know what kind of wood it is (but I suspect western cedar) but it is mostly about 1/2" thick by 4-8" wide and 2' - 4' long with odds and ends. It came off some outside play house or something. It needs cleaning up but the price is right.

Since it was really too cold to do anything yesterday, plus having lost a big chunk of the day to playing chaffeur getting my aging parents to and from the eye doctor, I thought I'd do a little cleanup on this pile of wood that needs to come out of the back of my truck (so I can go find more). The sun was shining and the wind had died down, and not wanting to make another mess in the shop, I dragged my lunchbox planer and it's rolling work table out onto the apron of the shop. I did check the thermometer hanging in my barn/shop ... almost 40° inside. The folks' van had said 32° when we had returned about an hour earlier. Anyway, it was cold enough you could see your breath!

So I started planing away, and planing and planing and planing. Well, you get the picture. I did seem to have a problem on occasion with some of the wetter wood sticking in the planer, which I suspect was the darn boards freezing to the bed temporarily (until I shoved 'em hard enough to move again.)

I did have one unique experience. At one point I thought I was getting some weird sawdust bouncing around. Upon closer examination I noticed my "sawdust" was little round white pellets and they weren't coming out of the planer. It was sleeting! Oh well, no time to stop now.

I ended up with a nice stack of fairly clean boards which will be great for making cheap drawers for some of that shop storage stuff I keep meaning to get done. And I got to make a nice big pile of shavings without having to clean the shop again.

We hit a high of 36°F yesterday. I guess when the urge to play is strong enough, there isn't much to keep me out of the shop. (I did dress about three layers deep before going out and wore jersey gloves most of this time even though I don't like working in gloves.)

Today is a heatwave, mid to upper 40s!

I have pieces that I want to turn, pieces to cut on TS and BS. I had tried to warm up Headstock w/trouble light and a blanket the drape had big holes between the way tubes and any heat seemed to dissipate quickly, even while the SS was running.

Can the SS MK V cover be used to warm the headstock with a 60 W incandescent trouble light for a couple of hours before use?

I have used the SS at 48 degrees, but the headstock was cold for all of the two and half hours of ripping and sanding. Its cabin fever, the Flu, or make some sawdust! This cold snap goes from Canada to California and Arizona, so I assume that a lot of woodworkers are suffering from concern about running SS below 50 degrees.

allsas wrote: Can the SS MK V cover be used to warm the headstock with a 60 W incandescent trouble light for a couple of hours before use?

I want to say that the cover is to porous to hole any heat in. A quote from the dust cover info. "These covers are custom tailored to fit your Shopsmith equipment, giving you added protection from condensation and rust, as well as dust and other workshop elements. Now, with improved breathability. All edges are double stitched. "